Maui has always been my favourite windsurfing destination but I not having been back for five years I wondered if those memories had been boosted in my mind. Well I’m just about to leave and I can tell you Maui not only lived up to expectation but also exceeded it. I was on the Island for twenty-eight days and only missed one days sailing because the body could take no more.
I had a few days on a 4.2 and even less on the 6.2 leaving the 5.3 as the workhorse. 5.3 everyday, even though I was there it sounds to good to be true but this is what I remember Maui to be. Even before my first visit Maui was everything, or more to the point, the event that used to unfold at Ho’okipa.
Back then we used to live for the new videotapes to come through, we’d even record the sound track and listen to it at the factory. I’d watched them so often I didn’t need a screen Robby back looping his way to victory; the sounds just enriched the pictures rattling around my mind.
Standing on the hill at Ho’okipa is like watching those old tapes but just as HD has improved the picture the riders have improved the show. The standard of sailing at Ho’okipa can’t be seen anywhere else, sure these guys can do there stuff all over the world and occasionally do it on better waves but there’s a little magic here that helps raise the game a little higher.
If this is the holy Grail then windsurfing has something extra special. Sure you can pay to touch the pitch at Manchester United or even run car round Silverstone but you can’t get out on that hallowed turf with Wayne or slide knee pads with Valentino Rossi but here in Maui you can share a wave with the ledges of our sport.
Wherever you game sits this place will raise it, I can’t ride but I had a hell of a lot of fun trying, Everything feels possible and after seeing the shadowbox jump off I’m starting to believe it, again, my jumping might need some improving but I’ll enjoy the moments when falling feels like falling.
